In an attempt to encourage cellists to continue, I am continuing my posts on Cello Lessons. I don’t know how many I will do. This might be my last along this line. Today was another great lesson.

First thing my instructor said was that he was going to knit-pick. I said, “Good”, and thought, “How refreshing is that?” An instructor who is actually going to teach me the detail and not just gloss over!

What I learned today: if you think the next note  right before fingering it, you will most likely finger it. This is assuming you have an idea where it is on the string.

What I found out is that I was playing mechanically. I was not playing intuitively. I have used finger tapes and a tuner to familiarize myself with the whereabouts of the notes on the strings and how to accurately finger them. That part I have figured out. I had no problem using finger tapes, but I had removed them. I was having intonation issues. I was thinking about putting the tapes back on, but hadn’t gotten around to it. 

In my lesson, I did the G scale as my instructor played thirds(?). My intonation was good. I was amazed. My instructor was not. He knew I could do it. I told him I had no idea why that worked. He said that he noticed that I just did it. He further stated that it will help with songs if I do not think about the note I am playing. He said to think the next note right before you play it. The finger will intuitively pretty much go there. I was a little dubious.

When we did the sonata, I tried that theory out. It was the best I ever played it.

We added the rest of that page 1 to it, for next week. It requires a shift on the D and G strings (just one note on the G string). That was fun.

I am extremely inconsistent, so whether this will all carry over in my week of practicing the sonata and the different ways I am to play the G scale, who knows? I did get the cello out and do it for a while when I got back home. I will see how it goes tomorrow after doing some sewing.

He also knit-picked my timing on the sonata. I knew there were at least two parts I thought I was getting wrong. I was right on that thinking. We worked on that. I can’t figure out why I was playing that one particular section the way I was, but we fixed it. I know how it should be played now.

Once again, I had a great lesson.

For those who do not have the benefit of an instructor, check out YouTube instruction videos, I have a couple links in the index thread I started the other day. Listen to cello music, preferably solo cello, and really listen to the notes played.

Oh, today, I found out what undertones are! I kept reading about them in string set descriptions, but really had no idea what it meant. Now I do.

I played my violin and viola a little more this past week. It did not seem to bother my cello bowing as they had been doing. I stayed away from them except for a quick little ditty a couple times a week, to keep them tuned and to give them play time. They were affecting my cello bow hold. I played a bit longer this past week to see if it would bother my cello hold. It did not, so I guess I can play the amount I played this past week and still hold the cello bow properly. Yippee!